Wairarapa Times-Age WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 13, 1943. FROM THE ENEMY STANDPOINT.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 13 January 1943, Page 2

Wairarapa Times-Age WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 13, 1943. FROM THE ENEMY STANDPOINT.

J7JMPIIASIS is rightly being laid by leading spokesmen of the Allied nations upon the magnitude of the task by which they are still confronted in the war. The note of caution and of warning sounded in this way is justified because any slackening in effort by the nations fighting totalitarian gangsterdom would be exceedingly dangerous and might be fatal. With these facts recognised and acted upon, however, the Allied nations are in a position to go forward with firm confidence and an assurance of ultimate victory. From the standpoint of the enemy Powers the outlook visibly is becoming more and more hopeless.

So far as Germany is concerned, the profoundly damaging effect of the series of disasters she has lately suffered in Russia was admitted almost openly by Lieutenant-General Dietmar, one of the most authoritative military commentators of the Reich, in some observations, broadcast on the German radio, which were reported yesterday. The principal interest of Dietmar’s survey of the situation is in his admission that nobody can predict*“what the outcome of this gigantic Soviet effort will be” and that: “It must be admitted that the Soviet reserves, human and material, are far greater than those of the Germans.” It is true that Dietmar finds in this state of affairs a reason for insisting on the mustering of further German reserves. Declaring that numerical superiority over the Russians must be established, he adds: —

The German nation must understand that henceforth a sharper distinction will have to be made between reserved and unreserved occupations. More men will have to go to the front to relieve those who are overburdened.

This, is bold and brave talk, but it is addressed to a nation likely to receive it with bitterness, if not with despair. Following upon the death of the hopes awakened by Hitler’s entirely erroneous assertion that the Russian armies virtually had been annihilated in 1941, Germany last year made an all-out effort on the Eastern front. Under the Speer plan, the author of which declared that the war must be won by the end of last October, before the Russian winter began, “or we shall have Jost it once for all,” German industry was drained heavily of both human and material resources to build up the armies in Russia to maximum strength.

The failure of the effort thus made, as well as the depletion of German resources it entailed, imparts an air of mockery to Dietmar’s declaration that there must be a still greater mustering of reserves. Bearing in mind always that Germany must expect to be attacked, in no long time and on a great scale, in southern and western Europe, as well as in Russia, the suggestion that the situation on the Eastern front, is to be redressed by a fresli call on reserves must appear, even in German eyes, merely fantastic.

It is not denied that the Allies are faced still by formidable difficulties, but a. resolute use of their expanding resources undoubtedly will enable them to overcome these difficulties. The German Army is still powerful, but its losses have been appalling and it is faced by enemies whose strength is expanding rapidly. German losses in the first year of the war against Russia are estimated conservatively at 3,800,000 —one-half of that total being fatalities. Enormous additions have been made to these figures since last June, including hundreds of thousands of men killed or captured in the Russian offensive of the last seven weeks.

Now, with the Russians cutting ever more deeply into her defensive lines and communications on the Eastern front, Germany is called upon to prepare for intensified warfare, as the weather opens, on that and other great fronts as well.' She is faced also by increasing difficulties in maintaining her grip on the occupied countries, practically all of which are either already in revolt or are seething with hatred of Germany and all things German, and are awaiting their opportunity. How much longer the German people will continue to respond to the' demands thus dictated remains to be seen, but certainly it is not possible for them to regard the outlook hopefully or happily.